


Space Doesn't Burn Red

by Aquavitae



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Established Relationship, Johan is loosely mentioned lol, Love Confessions, M/M, Romantic Fluff, and that's. this whole goddamn thing., it's cheesy as shit and it's just these two boys being in love, my favourite thing to write is people being in love, shameless fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-04
Updated: 2016-12-04
Packaged: 2018-09-06 09:52:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8745658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aquavitae/pseuds/Aquavitae
Summary: Taako isn't new to relationships, but he is new to actually being in love with someone and he has no idea how to articulate that.





	1. Taako Loves Kravitz

“I love you.” The words taste foreign and almost dry on his tongue, and he’s thankful he’s speaking them in practice to his reflection in a mirror and not to his actual boyfriend. “I’m in love with you,” he tries once again with feeling and comes off a little less ham-fisted but no more confident than before. “Kravitz, I think I love you.” Still blunt. Still hard. Still unnatural.

How do people do this? How did Merle do it – how did Magnus do it? How did Carey do it? It’s got to be easier than this, right?

Taako thinks this is the first time he’s loved someone. Like, loved someone. He’s had… flings in the past but they were passion at best – desire borne of necessity.

Kravitz is… Gods, he feels ridiculous trying to articulate this even internally. What is Kravitz? (Besides the Grim fucking Reaper)

Kravitz is… Kravitz is the comfort of darkness, Taako supposes. Kravitz is not a beacon of light on a cliffside and he’s not a bonfire roaring in the evening. Kravitz is the snuffed-out candle, burnt down at both ends. He’s comforting in his formality and finality. He’s a blanket of darkness. The darkness is not frightening – Taako’s always known this, but Kravitz confirms it – the darkness is a shawl wrapped tight around you. The darkness is easy on the eyes (Gods, is Kravitz ever easy on the eyes) and it is the bookend to a day. It’s the kiss goodnight and it’s the deliverance of rest.

Kravitz is all of these things. He is a comfort – he is not burning in exuberance and he is not smouldering with ingenuity or passion. He’s a dolt at times, to be sure, but he’s grateful and gracious and… And Taako loves him? Taako loves him. Fuck.

Fuck!!

It’s been, what, half a year? Yeah, half a year, he guesses, since their first date at the fucking Chug ‘n’ Squeeze. His heart grew fonder and Kravitz’s hands never grew any warmer. Icy boy. Taako’s used to it now, though, and if anything it’s a welcome sensation on nights when Merle has the furnace turned up to blast in their dorm. Taako doesn’t necessarily need to sleep, but he certainly doesn’t mind it when it’s in the arms of a corporeal air conditioning unit.

But, no, no, no – Kravitz is more than that. He doesn’t mean to imply that his boyfriend is just an ice pack. Kravitz the only person save for Merle and Magnus that Taako feels comfortable confiding in. Taako is terrified of coming off as vulnerable – he doesn’t mind others knowing he’s frail or lazy or physically weak but, like – emotional vulnerability? Hell no. He’s a brick wall of emotions, baby. A brick wall surrounding a thin glass sheet balanced precariously against a kitchen counter.

At first he wasn’t sure exactly what it was about Kravitz that lent him such a comfort and a sense of safety in sharing his weaknesses, but now he knows it’s got something to do (everything to do?) with the unassuming recognition he responds with. No leapfrogging to conclusions, no torrent of unnecessary questions. At worst, a verbal acknowledgement of Taako’s bleeding-heart honesty that tends to make the tips of Taako’s ears burn at the credit, but it’s not anything unbearable. Kravitz just… listens. Kravitz sees past the talk and the outlandish constant lying and the jokes and the noncommittal hand gestures and appreciates the honesties that Taako parleys with him. Maybe it’s because Kravitz collects souls for a living. Maybe it’s because Kravitz has stood before necromancers and undead beings who bore their hearts – pulled their ribs apart at the sternum and confessed every detail of their lives. Maybe it’s because Kravitz listens to concessions for a living and has had to become used to them out of necessity.

But he’s certainly not numb to them. He’s certainly not numb to Taako.

He told him about Glamour Springs about four months into their relationship. It was a lot earlier than he tells… well, anyone, to be honest, but it was Kravitz. So he told him.

He told him about the levity and the passion and the joy he felt when he started the show and the feeling of his heart leaping into his throat when the rug was pulled beneath him and he had to run. He told him about the guilt and the gripping self-hate and the desperation for some kind of reconciliation. He told him about the fear of whisks and bowls and kitchen countertops and fucking nightshade and all the while Kravitz watched with an expression that perfectly married concern and acknowledgement. No judgement. Kravitz had seen people deliberately play dollhouse with the corpses of the dead, he said – a confession of manslaughter was, in the grand scheme of things, not nearly as bad. “Still bad, obviously, but like…”

And Taako told him about Sazed. Taako told him what the Chalice showed him and explained the mix of horror and relief. Taako told him about the night terrors that decreased in frequency but changed in content, and Taako told him about the desire to cook again one day.

Silence hung in the air at the conclusion of his admission for a few seconds before Kravitz’s hand covered Taako’s own, skin like ice but still tender. “Thank you for sharing all of that with me,” he said, irises burning yellow and the edges of his eyes soft and loving, “I feel like I understand you better, which is always a good thing.” He smiled that outrageously handsome smile. “That must have been… forgive the work pun, but it must have been hell for you. I’m happy you came through it. I’m happy you’re here with me. I’m sorry that it was such a struggle to get here.”

Taako thinks that might have been the exact instant his feelings clicked over into ‘love’. Actual, legitimate, palpable love and he desperately had wanted to reply to Kravitz’s kindness with “Holy shit, dude, I love you,” but the result was instead a strangled noise not unlike a toad being squeezed.

But he wants to tell him!! He really does. Kravitz is important to him in a way no partner has ever been before. But he’s… well, fuck, he’s afraid. The stakes are really really high on this one! Taako finally feels something for someone who’s not a jealous tool mooching off his success and fame. Kravitz is a guy with his own entire life outside of the time he spends with Taako – granted, that life is spent hunting necromancers and dragging souls back to the astral plane but like… he’s actually employed so that’s dope.

It’s just that Kravitz means a lot to him, basically. Kravitz is something that Taako thought he never deserved – a partner who listens and a partner who genuinely cares about him and who Taako cares about, too. Kravitz makes Taako’s life better just by virtue of being in it and Taako’s not used to that and Taako really does not want to fuck this up.


	2. Taako Tells Kravitz

Kravitz always has the cheesiest date ideas. Usually they go horribly, hilariously wrong, but lately they’ve gotten better at scheduling around the BoB’s ridiculous drills and shenanigans and this afternoon is a similar lucky break.

Kravitz takes him to the park at the edge of the moonbase when the sun is near to setting. Sunrises and sunsets work way different on a false satellite orbiting the planet, turns out, but that doesn’t stop Kravitz from planning dates during these moments and trying to stumble his way into romanticism.

The sun is a blinding beacon blurred by the tinted glass at the edge of the dome when Taako and Kravitz arrive at the messy knoll of astroturf at the edge of the park. Taako managed to talk Kravitz into dressing down a bit for their date and somehow, by the grace of the gods themselves, Taako is now hanging off the arm of a grim reaper clad in khaki shorts and a dress shirt with the cuffs rolled up. Taako had nearly had a goddamn conniption when he met him for the date and he’s still not entirely over this fucking look. This wicked good wicked sexy look. Fuck.

Kravitz smiles down at him when they come to a rest at a patch of ground that looks a little less trampled than others. “Can I see the basket?” he asks.

Taako hands it to him with little hesitation, Kravitz’s smile burning a hole in his heart. Kravitz spends the next couple of minutes arranging the setting for the romantic picnic-at-sunset he fucking insisted on and Taako smiles now, too. Kravitz is so endearing. And handsome. And his ass looks phenomenal in those shorts.

And Taako loves him. And today Taako is going to tell him just that.

Maybe after the sun sets. Maybe as the sun sets. Maybe not until they walk home. Maybe before Kravitz kisses him goodnight. Maybe after. Maybe next time. Maybe never-

No, no, gods fucking damn it, he’s doing this today.

When he snaps back to, Kravitz is sat on what Taako thinks is supposed to be a picnic blanket but looks more like a fucking funeral shroud. Krav pats the spot beside him, a quiet request for his boyfriend to join him, and Taako daintily slides his feet out of his flats before padding over to sit beside Kravitz.

“This is, what, sunset number forty you’ve watched with me, now?” Taako jests.

“Well, nine, but you’re still correct if we’re playing by Price is Right rules.”

Taako snorts, resting a hand on Kravitz’s thigh. “What is it with you and that big fucking orb in the sky? Nine sunset dates? What, you never seen a sunset before?”

Kravitz turns to look at him, eyes yellower than that huge dumb orb outside, and the air is yanked out of Taako’s throat like a fish on a line. Kravitz is so fucking beautiful.

“Honestly, cuisle,” Kravitz breathes, “I missed the first eight. Too busy looking at you.”

Taako is going to fucking combust.

“Holy fuck?”

“Wh-what?”

“Fucking… goddamn fantasy Heathcliff out here. You’re so romantic. Are you like this with all the boys?”

“Nope,” Kravitz says, laughing as he laces his fingers in between Taako’s, “Just you.”

Taako glances down at their joined hands, their skin tones both dark enough that if it weren’t for the cold lines of Kravitz’s freezing fingers, Taako might lose track of where he ends and where Krav begins.

Gods, he’s too in love.

Is now good? Should he say it now? The sun is still a ways off from the horizon – is it too early? Taako knows Kravitz CRAVES that good good romantic shit so he wants to make this confession perfect for him. Kravitz has given him so much – so much love, so much patience, so much time and energy and care – and the least Taako could do for him is make the first ‘I love you’ good, right??

His throat closes around the words and he giggles instead, ducking his head down. Kravitz takes the opportunity to place a cold kiss to Taako’s forehead before turning away to rustle through the basket. “White or red?” He asks.

“Can you put them both in a blender with a bunch of baby carrots and just fuck every sommelier right?”

Kravitz snorts. “No blender. We’ll do that next time though. Can I assume you want red?”

Taako drawls out a long, “Yes pleeeeeease” that lasts until Kravitz slides a glass into his hand. “Thanks, babe.”

They toast, narrowly avoiding spilling red wine on Kravitz’s stupid-sexy shorts, and the afternoon progresses as it usually tends to – with laughter and outrageous recollections and the eventual warbling of Johan’s violin beneath the park’s gazebo.

Kravitz watches Johan, as usual, with a half-wistful look, and Taako covers Kravitz’s hand with his own. He knows that look. “If you wanna break early and have a jam sesh with him I don’t mind, Krav.”

Kravitz just shakes his head before turning back to Taako. “Can’t really drag a piano all the way out here, can I?”

“Fair point.”

“Thank you, though, Taako.” Kravitz smiles at the ground and dances his fingers across Taako’s knuckles. “I… you know, I… I’m really lucky. To be with you.”

“Oh, fuck yeah, you are, babe. Have you seen me?” Taako chirps.

To his credit, Kravitz laughs. He’s always good at taking Taako’s jokes. Taako loves him. He opens his mouth to say that, but Kravitz speaks first.

“I mean it. You, uh… If it weren’t for you introducing me to your friends, I… I don’t know if I would’ve ever got to play music with other people again. It’s… you helped give me back my passion – for music, f-for… for being on the material plane at all.” A smile splits his dark lips and he looks at Taako like Taako holds the ocean in his cupped hands – like he spills life from his palms. “Thank you. You make my life so much better just be virtue of being in it.”

And half of Taako is bawling at the overwhelming kindness and affection while the other half is screaming about the fact that Kravitz just stole the goddamn show. Taako was going to be the one with the sappy confessions tonight! Fuck!

Despite the warring emotions in his skull, Taako manages to pull himself together long enough to kiss the frigid skin of Kravitz’s knuckles. “You know me,” he says, “’Local Miracle Worker, Taako.’”

He’s worried there’s no way he can parley a perfect ‘I love you’ now. Maybe ever. The horizon of the planet is tangent to the sun now and the curve of the globe streaks with blues and greens.

Taako looks down at the finished glass of wine in his hand. “I didn’t like that wine very much,” he mumbles, just for the sake of having something to say. “I don’t suppose you brought a different red?”

Kravitz’s face lights up before he turns away, fumbling through the basket, “I did!! It’s more fruity, I think you’ll like it better.”

Taako’s heart swells at the thought and he sighs fondly. “This is exactly why I love you,” he says with a laugh, and the second the words leave his mouth he realizes the weight of what he’s said. He prays Kravitz doesn’t notice – doesn’t pay it any mind.

But he does. Kravitz always listens to him.

“You what?” he asks, turning back to face Taako. The look in his eyes is equidistant from shock and reverie.

“What?” Taako quips back, fighting the urge to wring his hands. This is not how he wanted this to go at all, holy shit. This is the wrongest he could have gotten it. Fuck.

“You… love me?”

“When did I say that?

Kravitz laughs through his words, “Just now.”

Taako’s pretty sure the darkening of his cheeks sells him out but he insistently plays dumb, hoping that somehow somehow he can undo how badly he fucked up the one thing he wanted to get right. “Hm… Either it’s my memory that’s failing, or it’s your hearing…”

Kravitz lays the unopened bottle of red wine down on the blanket beside the basket and turns back to Taako until they’re sat close together, thighs touching. “Maybe I can jog your memory,” he breathes, and takes Taako’s face in his hands like some kinda shit out of Fantasy The Notebook. Kravitz brushes his thumb against Taako’s jawline before smiling. “I love you too, Taako.”

“What? For realsies?”

Kravitz snorts, his shoulders bobbing as he laughs. “Yeah, Taako, for realsies.”

The sun dips behind the planet, a single orange beacon sending light flaring towards the edges of the sky. Space doesn’t burn red and purple at sunset the way it does on the surface – the world up here is not illuminated. It’s dark in every direction (like Kravitz) and it’s the unyielding expanse of dusk that puts Taako at ease (like Kravitz does). The curve of the globe hums with a small glow but the sky above is empty.

“Damn,” Taako says, voice cracking. “I guess you heard me right, then.” He swallows, in disbelief that this isn’t going wrong. He didn’t fuck it up. He says it again, for good measure. “I love you, Kravitz. A lot, I think?”

“Lucky me,” Kravitz says, and kisses him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi thank u for reading Baby's First Fic... i posted this on my tumblr first then crossposted it to here after. feel free to come join me on tumblr @ aquavitae where i frequently cry about how much i love Taako + Kravitz
> 
> edit: oh also i assumed the sunset on the moonbase would be like a sunset seen from the ISS? so i based it off that! i could be wildly wrong based on how far in the sky the base is so i'm sorry if i fucked it right up! u can see a cool video of the sun setting as seen from the ISS here: https://youtu.be/PGu7-KaAi2g?t=40s


End file.
